In providing telephone service to new or existing businesses, large numbers of terminal wiring blocks are used in forming or joining groups of conductors that carry audio and digital data associated with telephone networks. For a given geographical site, these tasks can be organized as follows. For example, the field engineers can break down project requirements into a series of bills of materials, purchase the needed equipment associated with each listing, and then transport all equipment to the work site for assembly. To avoid work stoppage at the work site, engineers often over-order equipment, creating stowage problems after the project is completed.
Cross connect hardware systems provide for relatively fixed or permanent but changeable interconnections among a large number of conductors within the work site. Since each project can be organized by task, the terminal wiring blocks can be provided with display cards in which indicia can be affixed to identify the task associated with a given wiring block. For example, indicia can identify conductors leading to one of the following: the user's key telephone sets, the network's central office, key telephone equipment, PBX equipment, special service equipment and cross-connected inter-positioned equipment.
In a typical work site example, a cable containing a large number of conductor pairs is terminated at one or more terminal wiring blocks and additional conductors are installed to fan out from such blocks to the equipment listed above, say to the user's key telephone sets. It would be advantageous to the installers to reduce the number of assembly steps that are performed at the job site. To this end, I am aware of wiring block and connector block assemblies organized by tasks as listed above, such wiring blocks each including curved legs for attachment to a flat surface or rack. However, I am not aware of a system that permits rows and columns of wiring blocks to be organized in rows and/or columns off-site on a color coded backboard member which identifies the termination task of the wiring blocks at the job site. More specifically, I am unaware of any such system which can terminate, the dedicated conductor pairs, a sufficient distance D above the broad surface of the backboard to permit easy conductor intrusion when assembly occurs at the job site but wherein fasteners for attachment of the blocks to the backboard do not inadvertently cause conductor snags and mars during on-job assembly.